Slow Data - The New Way to Consume Information in a Digital World

The world will never be as slow as it is now. That's a fact. We will never have as few people and things connected to the internet, as little data to store or information to process. Imagine every person in the world reading 174 newspapers every day. That is the estimated amount of information humankind produced in 2007 (1.9 zettabytes). Fast forward to 2022, and this number has grown to 74 zettabytes. That's enough crossword puzzles to last you 35 years. 

The discussion of how the way humanity consumes information impacts us isn't new. As early as 360 B.C., Plato worried about people's increasing reliance on writing over memory, lamenting that "by telling (people) of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part, they know nothing". In the 18th century, book dealer and author Johann Georg Heinzmann expressed concern over Germans reading too much rather than forming original ideas. The Oxford English Dictionary first mentioned "Information Explosion" in 1941. Scientists, academics and thinkers like Bertram Gross, Hal B. Becker and Alvin Toffler have been contemplating and warning of the effects of the ever-increasing amount of information since 1964.

If you have looked at a thousand cell excel model without knowing what's behind it, you will know that information in itself doesn't mean much. Without context, data is like raw materials, pieces of an unassembled IKEA shelf that alone do not resemble anything that can hold books. And there is more to insight than consumption. In your brain, it takes moving a piece of information from your short-term memory - the working memory can hold roughly three pieces of information at a time in young adults - to your long-term memory to mix and mingle with other parts of information, form schemas and morph into something original that wasn't there previously: a thought, a belief, an idea.

The problem is, in today's hyper-connected world, information rarely makes it to this stage. Presented with a rich cocktail of competing digital stimuli, "our brains turn into simple signal-processing units, quickly shepherding information into consciousness and then back out again", says Nicholas Carr in "The Shallows". In exceeding our cognitive load, "we're unable to retain the information or to draw connections with the information already stored in our long-term memory. We can't translate the new information into schemas." To turn the raw pieces of data into something of value you need context and time, you need to process the information and let it simmer with other pieces of information. However, in our 24/7 connected world, we have little time to process the events of the day, let alone the end of a Zoom call. We are bingeing, rarely digesting.

What I want to propose in this article is a series of conversation starters for digital antidotes that will likely only be relevant for another five to ten years, so we must enjoy them while we can. And we must start today.

While tech entrepreneurs, philosophers, lawmakers and CEOs are philosophising about the societal impact and opportunities of big data, the internet of things, artificial intelligence and machine learning, the topic of information processing has a very actionable place in our daily lives as individuals, in your life. We find ourselves at a point in history where not acting will have tangible consequences on our cognitive health, relationships, work, and wellbeing. 

Start with “Why” (… am I using this?)

When my parents needed a book, they went to the library; if they wanted to arrange to meet a friend, they called them; if they wanted to watch a movie that wasn't on TV, they rented it out; if they needed a new pair of trousers, they went to a shop; if they wanted to find out about the latest developments in the world, they opened a newspaper. Engaging with media just 20 years ago was intentional, goal-directed, and, to a great extent, meaningful. In our digital age, things are different. Information is lurking everywhere, designed to pull us towards whatever it is trying to get us to buy, read, listen to or watch. Sometimes, all at the same time. In this world of endless possibilities, not being clear about your goals can mean the difference between getting the work done and spending hours watching Youtube videos about a non-related topic. It can be the difference between taking actionable steps toward completing a client project on time or compulsively checking your email every five minutes. Understanding your goals and your "why" is crucial to spot the difference between what is a diversion and what is the road leading you closer to what you actually want to do.

Managing the Emotional Needle

Think about the information you come across on a daily basis, whether it is through email, text, social media, instant messaging, news, movies, newsletters, or radio. How does it affect your mood, your productivity, and your motivation? Your environment has the power to impact your decisions, your mindset and your attitude. Today, the digital environment we spend our time in rarely is neutral, it's designed to keep us engaged, and this requires the use of strong emotions. However, the majority of us have not yet taken the time to consider and put a filter on the information that we are exposed to on a daily basis. We check the news relentlessly, wondering why we feel more hopeless about the world. We check our email late at night and wonder why we can't fall asleep, worrying about our to-do list. We check our social media channels every 20 minutes and wonder why we cannot feel grateful for the good things in our life (and also don't get any work done).

When it comes to media that move the emotional needle, we need to start practising self-awareness and become our own gatekeepers.

We need to establish mechanisms to manage and maintain our psychological balance and making intentional decisions about the media, channels and accounts you engage with and how often will be one of the most important forms of self-care in a digital world. 

Cutting down to the Essentials

"Decision fatigue" is a term the majority of us first encountered in the (slightly humorous) context of hoodie and turtleneck uniforms that tech CEOs like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg wore to reduce the number of decisions they needed to make. But in the age of information overload, it's a reality. Every piece of information presents us with one or multiple choices. "Is this important?" (Should I store this information for future use?) "Is this something I need to act on now?" (Or can I file it away for later use?) Most of the time, your brain makes this choice without you even noticing. In our digital world, however, we are presented with an unprecedented number of choices every second of the day. "Do I click on this hyperlink?", "Should I open this notification now?", "Should I click on this ad?", "Should I reply to this email now?", "Should I click on this suggested Ted Talk or keep working?". "Life immersed in digital distractions creates a near-constant cognitive overload. And that overload wears out self-control", says Daniel Goleman in his bestseller "Focus". Self-control, however, is essential to managing the distractions around you and staying focused on your goal. Designing your environment to reduce the amount of (digital) decisions you need to make is essential to preserving your limited cognitive resources for the truly important decisions you need to make in your personal and professional life. I'm not advocating that you start wearing the same clothes every day, something as simple as disabling notifications, removing your phone from sight when you need to focus and allocating times during the day when you check your email or social media is a start.

Making Breaks Medicine

Thousands of productivity books are published annually with revolutionary methodologies promising groundbreaking results. (See what I did there) Few of them have summarised it as beautifully and simply as the artist Banksy: "Learn to rest, not to quit." The truth is: Yes, you can increase your attention span, boost your productivity and improve your focus, and do so with surprisingly straightforward methods. But you are not Eddie Morra, and this is not Limitless. The human brain needs rest, sleep, and times during the day when it's just wandering and not in a state of focused attention and alertness. The brain doesn't even need your permission to do this. When it's overexerted, you will simply find it harder to focus. Our modern remedy to this is ignorance and self-judgement. In her book "Attention Span", author and researcher Gloria Mark suggests an alternative: actually taking breaks, and for the suspicious workaholics among us even citing research that showed how taking breaks - synonymous with feeling happier at work - even improves productivity. When it comes to building the road to more wellbeing in our personal and professional lives, we're still at the planning and programming stage. What will be needed is a fundamental cultural shift from seeing breaks as a sign of weakness to seeing them as something as essential as drinking two litres of water per day. Unfortunately, the effect of not doing so will become increasingly obvious.

In two years' time, it is estimated that we will produce 147 zettabytes of information. A lot of this data processing will happen in the background without you even noticing. That is the beauty of things like Web3. But the demands placed on us as individuals will only increase. The purpose of this article was to assure you that there are ways to slow down and take things at your own pace without missing out. "Slow data", similar to "slow fashion" or "slow food", is not about being nostalgic for an analogue world. Rather it's an invitation to examine the information you are exposed to every day and how it aligns with your values, goals, and human quests for happiness, wellbeing and fulfilment. And beyond that, how it aligns with our vision for our planet's future generations. It is in slowing down that we will realise that, despite living in a hyper-connected world, we can shape our day and our lives to a great extent. The question really is just: when will you begin?